The Awesome Return of the Rock Choir Song

Forty-five years ago, London's Bach Choir joined the Rolling Stones to record "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Despite its commercial and critical success, the choir has generally been used sparingly in rock music history: Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2," the Rattle and Hum version of U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Under the Bridge," Blur's "Tender," the Killers' "All These Things That I've Done." (Sorry, no, Mike and the Mechanics' "The Living Years" does not qualify as rock.)

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But in the last couple years, choirs have been more present than ever in rock, and not just in indie rock. There's the men's choir on Bat for Lashes' "The Haunted Man" from last year, and Girls' 2011 track "Vomit," accurately described by NME as "a cataclysmic eruption of gospel noise resembling Spiritualized covering Floyd's 'Great Gig in the Sky.'" (A choir also plays a big part in Spiritualized's own 2012 album, the terrific Sweet Heart Sweet Light.) But the choir vibe is also all over Florence and the Machine's "Breath of Life and Coldplay's "Paradise," even if there's technically no choir on the latter. The Boss himself took the cue with 2012's "Rocky Ground."

Then there are the groups that are essentially choirs themselves: Arcade Fire, Dirty Projectors, tUnE-yArDs. (There's only one main singer behind that last one, Merrill Garbus, but thanks to her ridiculous range and multitracking, she often sounds like a dozen.) Meanwhile, the godfathers of indie rock's choral movement, the white robe-attired Polyphonic Spree — which has numbered as many as 50 members — are still at it more than a decade after their formation.

The latest rockers to get their madrigal on (a movement that, like it or not, may owe something to Glee) are the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Released earlier this week, their stomping new single "Sacrilege" (at top) features a 24-piece gospel ensemble. "It was like a pep talk," lead singer Karen O has said of their new sound. Because of this and its religious theme, the single was instantly compared to Madonna's "Like a Prayer." But really it's just an example of another band picking up on a good idea. Is it any surprise that Staten Island's P.S. 22 chorus has become famous for covering the likes of Beach House, MGMT, and Tame Impala? Those bands are practically begging for the interpretation.

"This is the opera house but you can't touch my cock," Cave bellowed in jest, momentarily forgetting the choir of young school girls gathered in the shadows waiting to perform. "Oh I'm sorry, so sorry," he gingerly corrected, later making sure the girls were "okay" on several occasions to universal acknowledgments of the affirmative.

Rock may be sounding more and more like something you'd hear in church. Just don't expect its practitioners to get any more chaste.